Jvg should rest Yao 1-2 minutes at 4th quarter

I bet you didn't think this way before this last game.......

JVG couldn't have known either.

I think if Yao didn't have to face all those quick guys all game long, he'd be ok for the end of the game. He was super active on defense.

 

I was thinking the same thing around the 7 minute mark. He came in around the 2 minute mark of the 3rd so he finished out the last 14 minutes. Yao just can't do that as we saw.

 

He came in with 3:50ish. That's the final 16 minutes of the game. When has Yao ever played 16 minutes in a row without a breather. Let's face it, he just can't do it.

I mean he absolutely dominated the defensive end in the second half up until the final 5-6 minutes. And on offense he was relatively efficient. Not dominating, but a typical efficient game out of him. Then down the stretch, he kept getting burned on defense and couldn't but a bucket on offense. He was just gassed, plain and simple.

I know that JVG can run T-mac out there above and beyond his minutes, but I don't see how it's going to work with Yao. In hindsight, the beginning of the 4th when we were up by 6 was the right time to sit Yao. And I'm sure JVG recognizes that he made a mistake. He's a sharp guy. I don't expect him to play Yao so many minutes in a row again unless he's on a mission to toughen Yao up by running him through the gauntlet game after game, and damn the consequences. But I doubt that will happen. This ain't a rebuilding team. We need the double-yous.

 

I don't think 37 minutes is too much for Yao, at least not for 1 game or 2. 37 minutes per game for a month would be too much for Yao.

The question is the rotation. JVG took Yao out 4 minutes into the 3rd and put him back in with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd. Has JVG postponed these subs by 4-6 minutes, Yao would have been fresher down the stretch and he still would have played 37 minutes.

 

Obviously Yao was tired that last 3 minutes of the game against the Hornets. It was indeed a bad decision on JVG's part. When he commited that ugly foul on JP that turned into a 3pt play, that was a sure sign of exhaustion, and with a little bit of immaturity. I also think that Head should have been playing in that period because he played well with his matchup against Speedy. Again, JVG put in Wesley who was struggling big time earlier in that game.

 

i love yao but there is nothing wrong with jvg toughing him up early in the season. we may need him to play the entire 4th in some playoff games, so why not set the bar high against a team like the hornets?

look, who cares if we lose an extra 5 or 6 games as long as jvg finds each person's limits now and is able to exploit/maximize them later in the playoffs. mix up the lineups and figure out what works, even if it costs us now. we're trying to win a championship, not every single regular season game.

 

I also think that the number of minutes Yao played was not the problem but the substitution pattern for his rest. The Rockets need him at the end of the game. His teammates need to rise to the occasion: the bench, the power forward position and the 2-guard postion. Yao like T-Mac, can't do it alone. This game was reminiscent of T-Mac in the playoffs where he played his butt off and was unable to finish games.

 

Now that TMac is out for at least 3 weeks, Yao should start getting used to playing a whole quarter, especially the 4th quarter. I believe that's what's on JVG's mind.

And I still couldn't come to terms with the fact that Yao can't play more that 35 minutes per game. Yes I know he simply can't. But I find it extremely disappointing and secretly deep down in my heart, I do blame Yao.

 

It's not so much that Yao can't play a whole quarter or can't play 35 minutes, but that 16 minutes in a row to finish a game just seems too much for him. If he got 9 minutes a quarter instead, I think he would have been much fresher down the stretch.

 

Yao was tired at the end of the game. I mean he had his hand on his thighs and he was slower than usual. Yao needs his rest to be effective.

 

Playing the whole 4th quarter won't be that hard if Yao gets some rest at the end of 3rd.

 

Yao could have played more than 37 minutes, but not the way he was used tonight, where he had to be the only offensive option in almost every possesion. No big man could do that for 12 minutes consecutively, especially in the 4th qtr.

 

PJ Brown blew right past Yao on the way to the basket near the end, and Yao could only get a hand on his shoulder to foul him. PJ Brown!

JVG should have rested Yao, or called more time outs, or pulled the fire alarm, or something. The Hornets were trying to play up-tempo and Yao couldn't keep up. Deke was struggling as well.

And why the hell did Yao block 7 shots? I think all of them were weak-side help blocks, so a lot of his teammates were getting beat off the dribble.

 

It didn't help to trade TO's with Hornet as running up and down the court flat out kills Yao much quicker than any other guy in the league.

 

during john stockton's last few seasons, coach jerry sloan had a few tricks of getting stockton more resting time than it seemed.
he made the game stop the time a lot more when stockton was on the bench, giving him more resting time, than actual bench time.
maybe jvg can pull something like that at certain times, especially when tmac's out.

 

I think it's a problem for Rockets if they have to keep Yao playing a whole quarter without rest in between. With the talents we have, I'm sure JVG is gonna come up with something that can give Yao enough rest in between and hopefully the ref don't screw us like usual, Yao is gonna be much better down the stretch.

 

Considering that in Deke's 10 minutes he had 4 fouls and 2 TO's to go along with his 3 boards...I'm not sure what other option was available. Possibly, we could have tried 2 or 3 minutes of Juwan and Stro but Stro is still struggling (although his rotations were markedly better....the Kings will expose bad defense better than NOK).

My only criticism is that Juwan was 4 for 6 and probably should have gotten a few more touches in the final quarter. He did not have 1 FGA in the final 4 minutes in spite of the fact that his man was shading Yao. If the Rockets' would have quit force-feeding Yao and reversed the ball back to the weakside, Howard would have been wide open in the low block on a night when his touch was good.

 

I agree with the notion that Yao is going to have to learn how to play these type of games, just tough it out. This is when we learn if Yao can carry us on his back or if he really is a talented but limited player that JVG can't entrust him fully as the focal point of the team, which he has done with TMac.

 

True. I still think something was up with the entire team last night, I don't know if it was the news about T-Mac or what but everybody looked uptight.

I still want to know what was up when JVG yanked Yao after a beautiful weakside block about 4 mins. into the 3rd quarter. Yao almost ran to the bench straight up to JVG with arms extended and it looked like he screamed "what did I do?" JVG said something and pointed to a couple of places and Yao was pissed off as he walked away.

I don't know if that exchange had anything to fo with Yao playing the final 16 minutes of the game, but I don't think JVG did a good job of managing in the 4th quarter.

After the attempted grab by Yao on PJ's layup everyone knew Yao was gassed and what the heck was JVG thinking leaving him in there? All in all I think we gave this one away.